Ten-year-old Al-Mawred Al-Thaqafy announced a freeze on activities and a closing of its Cairo office last November, just a few weeks after the pioneering El Fann Midan’s activities were also suspended in Egypt.

These programs ranged from grants for independent artists, the Darb al-Ahmar School for Music and Circus Arts, an ambitious project for developing cultural management in the Arab region, various regional art and cultural festivals and workshops and volunteer-based cultural caravans sent to underprivileged areas in Egypt and to refugee camps outside it.

But after 10 years, the organization decided last November that they could no longer operate in Egypt. Again, Mada on the reasons why:

Under the newly issued, loosely tailored laws against civil society, the staff of Al-Mawred Al-Thaqafy and the beneficiaries of its activities could be prosecuted on charges of receiving foreign funds — an indictment that could possibly lead to death sentences. The organization’s planned relocation to either Beirut or Tunis thus sounds largely understandable.

The launch ceremony, which will reportedly be preceded by a biannual meeting of the board, will host performances by Lebanese musicians Mike Massy and Charbel Haber, as well as a screening of Ahmed Khaled’s White Sugar.